The young Thunder lineup had lost to Becker 77-48 on Jan. 5, and to Foley 68-41 on Jan. 24. But they got a payback win 48-33 over Foley to close the regular season last Friday, which raised them two notches in the section seeding, then gave Becker a good game in the rematch.

“We’ve been trying a different approach on defense and the kids have bought into that,” said Dalbey.

About the post-season one-and-done, the coach said, “Your last game is never fun, except for the state champs. But the kids have been playing hard. And we’ll have a lot of kids back.”

The Thunder have five juniors, two sophomores and a freshman in the top eight.